He went from busking to Broadway.
J. Alphonse Nicholson, who was on a drumline growing up in North Carolina, spent years drumming on the street in New York City before he hit the big time.
“You have so many different street musicians who do that,” he told me on this week’s “Renaissance Man.”
“But that’s how I made a living, man. As long as I can make $100 a day. That was what I did every day for a long time,” he said. “I moved to New York, started street drumming there, and then the sky’s the limit, man … I made my way to Broadway. And first Broadway show, we got the Tony award.”
The musician-turned-actor is talking about his role in “A Soldier’s Play” but his résumé is deep with credits on the stage and screen. He’s had a role in “White Men Can’t Jump,” which debuted on Hulu last month, and he plays closeted rapper Lil Murda on Starz’s “P-Valley.“
“We all know a Lil Murda, especially coming from our communities. You all know someone who has to hide who they really are,” he said. “Whether it’s because this is who they’ve been their entire life, whether they went from the, you know, prison pipeline and having to come out and finding out, ‘hey, I’m in love with men.’ So whatever the case may be, I knew that I knew who this gentleman was and that I could do justice with the role, even though I wasn’t part of the community, even though I was a heterosexual man.”
Before taking on the challenging role, the married father discussed it with his wife and his family.
“I said, ‘Hey, this is going to be a heavy burden to carry … But I feel like it’s going to pay off in all types of ways,’ ” he said.
His fearless portrayal of Lil Murda has elevated him and gained him a loyal fanbase in the LGBTQ community.
“I’m grateful that I’m able to shine light on people that I’ve been loving my entire life. Whether you’re my cousin, my brother, my sister … And so I’m grateful for the combined kind of allyship on both sides, right? [For the LGBTQ community] to reach out to the heterosexuals and say, ‘Hey, we love this show,’ ” was gratifying, he said.
Raised in the Pentecostal church, J. had an almost accidental foray into acting. He went to college thinking he’d study music, but that changed when he was stopped in the hallway by a teacher who recognized his charisma and said, “‘Hey, you got a great personality. I saw you talking to this young lady. I think you should come audition for this play.’ So I got the acting bug then and had always been a fan of the usual suspects: Will Smith, Denzel, though, actually, one of my favorite actors growing up was Robin Williams … And then Meryl Streep, Viola Davis.”
But he is still pursuing music and has created tracks for “P-Valley.” His favorite rapper of all time is Lil Wayne, but that education with hip-hop came later in life.
“Especially coming up at that Pentecostal church. My mother would hardly let me listen to anything, man. I think Kenny G was as worldly as we got,” he quipped.
“Cannabis has had a huge effect on my life,” he said, adding that he later realized it was therapeutic. “There was something that I didn’t just use recreationally, but something that helped me control my anxiety, insomnia, where there’s small aches and pains … cannabis really became a resource for me. So when I moved to LA, I had some people introduce me to Chris Ball and I said, ‘Hey, let me be the face of your brand.’ And I really want to continue to help not only push black-owned cannabis but the medicinal properties of it.”
J. is also a proponent of medicinal marijuana and a brand ambassador for a black-owned, LA-based cannabis company, Ball Family Farms.
They even put his face on one of their strains called “The Phonzie,” which he described as a lemony hybrid.
When he first laid his eyes on it, he said: “I cried like a baby.”
And just think of what he’ll do when he wins that Oscar?